Mission Status: Mission is completed. A proposal was made to extend
the mission with a reduced crew number of three people who will work
toward a relatively new set of objectives. Proposal was approved.

Sol Activity Summary: We woke up today to the smell of lobster
biscuits and herb garlic butter. Several crew members had been
salivating over that box of lobster biscuits since Sol 1, so it was a
celebratory meal that marked the end of our nominal mission. The skies
were clear today and our crew astronomer was kind enough to show
several crew members how to use the solar observatory. After cleaning
and bag packing, we drove to Hanksville to share lunch together and
part ways. Four crew members continued to Grand Junction, while three
crew members returned to the habitat. It was hard to see the crew
split into half, but the three remaining crew members are determined
to use what they have learned from the full team to make the extended
mission worthwhile at both a personal level and team level.

Look Ahead Plan: The reduced crew members will plan new and modified
research projects and brainstorm possible reduced crew EVAs.

Non-nominal systems: generator autostart, generator start, solar panels power generation or conversion
Notes on non-nominal systems:
1) During the day the solar panels almost generated no power (<1kW for 2, 0kW for the 3rd) although it was a very sunny day. This led to a drop of SOC to 66% when we came back from town (at 17:20).
2) At 17:20, we started the generator which worked on the generator side, however after pushing the button to connect the generator to the network, the system shuts down after a few minutes (it was in under frequency). We tried several times and it did the same. Shannon came to help and after repeating the operation several times, it finished to work.

Generator (hours run): From 4:00 pm last night to 7:45 am. On tonight at 6:15 pm.

Notes on rovers: Rovers were not used this week
# Hours the ATVs were Used today: 0
Notes on ATVs: ATVs were taken out of active service and are now parked away from the station

HabCar used and why, where? Yes, to go to Hanksville at 1:00 pm as a part of the crew is leaving today, we ate there and came back at 5:10
CrewCar used and why, where? Yes, by Shannon, to go to Hanksville at 1:00 pm as a part of the crew is leaving today, we ate there and she came back at 5:50

General notes and comments: the nominal mission is completed (1 week sim), we stopped the sim at 0:00am and cleaned up the hab. While 4 members of the crew left (with their own car), an extension of the mission was proposed and approved by Shannon, with a 3 member crew. We will start again the sim tomorrow evening.
Generator start was problematic.

Narrative:
I realized that I am really underwatering my plants. The new crew of 3
spent time watering tonight. We thinned the carrots as well. Shannon
also increased the average temperature. We thinned the carrots as
well.We will be refilling the water tomorrow.

Harvest:
NONE

Support/Supplies Needed:
NONE

Field Season #18

About The MDRS

The Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert was established by the Mars Society in 2001 to better educate researchers, students and the general public about how humans can survive on the Red Planet. It is the second Mars analogue habitat after the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station was established in 2000.

Over 200 crews of six-person teams have lived in 1-2 week field visits at MDRS to simulate life on the Martian surface. Researchers and students alike have explored the Mars-like terrain in the area surrounding the station in full “spacesuits”, maintained the station’s systems, grown plants in the GreenHab to support themselves and even recycled their waste water.

Our activities at MDRS are not only about informing the public, but also conducting real research to bring humanity that much closer to the reality of human exploration on the planet Mars.

Annual field seasons at MDRS run approx. October through May. Anybody can apply to be on a crew, and we also need volunteers to help with the project.